ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri has claimed that the popularity of religious extremists groups in the society will now decline faster and predicted that these people will be rejected totally in the future political activities.

In a statement issued here by the PAT media secretariat, Dr Qadri criticized the extremist leadership of the country for its unwise stance on the Afghan issue, which, he added, had resulted in the killing of innocent Pakistanis in Afghanistan.

These elements misinterpreted Jihad for their own gains and had, therefore, become incapable of guiding the people even from a religious point of view, let alone the political, he added.

He said on one hand the extremist leadership had made fanatics of Taliban by showing them prospects of a victory against the US and on the other instigated the students of their seminaries and other innocent Pakistanis to come out on the streets. However, none of these actions produced a positive result, he added. — Reporter